This Black Friday, Occupy Main Street; Shop At A Local, Small Independent Merchant

Only the Washington Post could illustrate an article on how Black Friday and Christmas creep are ruining Thanksgiving with a slideshow of the hot electronics you should line up for. But in the article they note:

As the Occupy movement fighting against greed on Wall Street grows in size and action, the American holiday that celebrates consumerism is just around the corner. And protesters have already informally announced plans to “Occupy” Black Friday by protesting malls and corporate stores. Their goal? To “bring the economy to a halt on the one day they won’t be able to ignore us.”

While I don't think we are going to see a general strike on Friday, I do think that there are some places that we shouldn't occupy. Walmart in particular should be called out this year for their outrageous wrecking of Thanksgiving for families across America by opening at 10 PM on Thursday night. One group is calling for non-action:

We ask on this day that all Occupations, and all those who stand with the 99% in solidarity, refrain from purchasing anything from WalMart on Black Friday this year. WalMart relies on this as the busiest shopping day of the year, the one day by which the year's successes are most closely measured, and on this day we ask quite simply: Just. Don't. Go.

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One of the fundamental problems I have always had with the idea of Buy Nothing Day is that shopping isn't necessarily a bad thing; we should be out there supporting local merchants on main streets that support our local communities, the green stores that bring us healthy food and non-toxic products, the farmers we buy from at the farmers markets. Many of them will be open on Friday, trying to get a few of those dollars being spread around; many of them are even having sales. Occupy them instead.